Football Season

The Suburban Youth Football League has implemented new weight rules for the upcoming 2013 football season. The following is a list of weight requirements and changes that the league has made, according to the North Parkland : Athletes in the Junior Pee-Wee class remain at 80 pounds. Pee-Wee weight class has changed up to 100 pounds, with no season weight increase. Junior Varsity weight class has changed to 120 pounds, with no weight season increase. Varsity weigh class has changed to 140 pounds, with no season weight increase.

By Nick Rabasco, Of The Morning Call and By Nick Rabasco, Of The Morning Call | July 17, 2014

Zach Greenwald and Sam Dougan, both rising seniors at Kutztown, have been named USA College Football Pre-Season All-Americans. Last season, Greenwald was named second team all-PSAC for the second straight year. He had 68 tackles, with a team-leading 20.5 tackles for a loss. He was also fourth in the PSAC with 8 sacks. Greenwald has been a Golden Bear for the last three years and is a two-time captain. Dougan is a two-time all-conference winner after earning second team honors last season.

Senior Joey Ford will be able to play football this season, coach Steve Shiffert said at practice Thursday morning. District 11 originally ruled that Ford was ineligible to play this season for an undisclosed reason. The PIAA overturned that decision at a hearing Wednesday. The case did not involve a transfer; Ford played for Easton last year. Ford was not in pads with the Red Rovers this morning, as he was working on completing the heat acclimatization program enacted by the PIAA before this season.

Zack Bradley graduated from Catasauqua High School on Monday night. But on Tuesday night, he got to represent the Rough Riders one more time and the school simply couldn't have had better representation. Bradley, a three-sport athlete best known as the quarterback of the Colonial League and District 11 Class 2A football champion, was chosen as the first Coordinated Health Athlete of the Year at a banquet at the SteelStacks entertainment complex in Bethlehem. The special night featured soon-to-be Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Andre Reed as the main speaker.

"Next man in" was more than coachspeak for the Lafayette football team in 2013, especially at the most critical position: quarterback. The Leopards started the season with high hopes for junior Zach Zweizig, based on his play in the second half of 2012. But the year for the 6-5 former Wilson West Lawn star began with four interceptions and only one touchdown pass in the first two games. In the third game, he was sacked five times in one half before leaving with a concussion that ended his season.

Penn State University, still reeling from Freeh Report revelations that the university covered up for convicted child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky, could face the loss of football games if NCAA investigators find the penalty is warranted, the head of college sports' governing body suggested this week. NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a Monday PBS interview that he wouldn't rule out any sanctions, including the so-called "death penalty," adding that he hasn't seen anything "as egregious" as the Sandusky scandal at a university.

Trustin Macalush, 18, of Nesquehoning helps power wash the stands at the Panther Valley Stadium in Lansford. The Panther Valley High senior works for the district's summer worker program. On Tuesday, the district was prepping the stadium for the 2007 season.

The PIAA's football steering committee has rejected a proposal by executive director Brad Cashman to expand football playoff classifications from four to eight and to reduce the football season from 16 weeks to 14 weeks. But the committee did suggest changes in the football calendar for 2008 that will be passed along to the PIAA Board of Directors in January. The committee voted 10-1 Wednesday to move the following proposal to the PIAA Board of Directors, beginning in 2008-2009: Retain the current four classifications; give schools the option of replacing their second scrimmage with a game; provide for at least a three-day heat acclimation period with no pads or contact the week prior to the official start of fall sports practice; maintain a 16-week season (assuming a school opts for its first game instead of a second scrimmage.

Go ahead and glance at your calendar, which still reads July. Of course, you don't really have to look at your calendar to know what month it is. Any thermometer will do. If it's above 90 degrees, it's July. And if it's July, it's still baseball season, right? The Legion playoffs are about to get underway. Little League teams are playing their way toward Williamsport. Most major league baseball teams are gearing up toward postseason runs. But if it's July, it's also football season.

It's finally time to close the books on a fall sports season that started way back during swimwear weather. Seems like a long time ago, huh? Before we trade helmets for wrestling singlets and basketball jerseys, let's take a glance back at a memorable football season. Three numbers come to mind: eight, eight and 10. That's eight, as in eight victories for an Upper Perkiomen football team that has made gargantuan strides and figures to be a big factor in the Pioneer Athletic Conference hunt over the next couple of years.

Kareem Williams' big brother, Andre, stopped by a Parkland track and field practice last week. As a Heisman Trophy finalist and the nation's leading rusher last football season as a senior at Boston College, it's a big deal these days when Andre Williams returns to his high school. The elder Williams will be proud to learn that little brother is still stepping out of his sizable shadow. Following up on his outstanding football season for Parkland, Kareem Williams started the track and field season with a strong showing in the Trojans' 100-50 triumph over Easton in a Lehigh Valley Conference boys meet on Monday at Parkland.

When Matt Tobin arrived for a dreaded 6 a.m. preseason workout last October, there already was an East Stroudsburg University basketball player running laps. It was Zech Runkle, the last person Tobin expected to see. "He has a love for the game, but he's in the trainer's room more than on the court," Tobin joked. It has been no joke for Runkle, who has had to overcome personal tragedy, his own stubbornness and more injuries than he's had haircuts - and he's had haircuts. Six years after he arrived on the ESU campus, Runkle is the emotional leader of a record-setting men's basketball team that is the nation's second-ranked team and the top seed for this weekend's NCAA Division II Atlantic Region.

Nothing, it seems, has come easy for the Notre Dame-Green Pond boys basketball team all season. So it was fitting that Saturday night's Colonial League title game against Catasauqua at Freedom's McIntyre Gym was anything but easy for the Crusaders. And, certainly, nothing came easy in the frantic, final seconds. First and second attempts at a game-winning basket failed, but the third try — a put-back by Vincent Eze — hung on the rim for a few, tantalizing seconds before dropping through.

UNIVERSITY PARK - Penn State Athletics announced Tuesday a variable pricing structure for its single game public football tickets during the 2014 season. Variable pricing determines individual game prices from many factors including expected demand for that game, and will provide more pricing choices for Penn State fans this season. "We have been listening to our fans and as a result will extend a variable pricing structure for football for the first time this season," said Director of Athletics Dave Joyner.

Turn out the lights, the parity's over. The Bowl Championship Series era of equal access and catering to college football's "little guys" ended Monday night at the Rose Bowl when Florida State ended the Southeastern Conference's winning streak. The new playoff format will weed out the weak, make the big conferences richer and the small conferences poorer. Why do you think Chris Petersen finally left Boise State for Washington' There are exciting times ahead for everyone except the Sun Belt Conference and the GoDaddy.com Bowl.

I just wanted to say thank you to the Catasauqua Rough Riders, especially the seniors, for the most exciting football season I have seen in my lifetime. Every work week seemed so short due to the anticipation of a game on Friday night. To know some of these fine young men on and off the field has been a true pleasure. Good luck to them all. I'll always remember this season! Daniel J. Doria Catasauqua

Chance Long, 9, of Haycock Township (left) tries to tag Marley Probition, 9, of Richland Township during a game of touch football Monday at Quakertown High School. The game was part of a summer camp run by LifeSpan Day Care Inc. Below left, Long, counselor Shelly Guare (center) and Liz Opdyke, 9, of Quakertown pick their next play. Below right, Opdyke, as quarterback, looks for an open receiver. Teacher Sima Green said the children didn't mind playing in the cold, windy, rainy weather.

By Sarah Fulton Special to The Morning Call -- Freelance | September 2, 2003

Panther Valley School Board decided last week to demolish most of its football stadium in Lansford and spend $2.7 million to build a safer structure for next year's football season. Officials say the home-side bleachers in the 73-year-old stadium have become rusty and unsafe. The board on Thursday decided to replace bleachers on both sides of the field. The freestanding roof that covers bleachers on the home-side will be salvaged. "The roof itself is not in deteriorated shape," said district business manager Thomas Cipriano, adding the roof's support posts will be blasted and repainted.

GREEN, Ohio - Ozzie Newsome and John Harbaugh were standing in the corner of the Baltimore Ravens' practice facility when the gunshot went off.At least Beanie Wells thought it was a gunshot. On Oct. 22, Wells, a former Garfield High School and Ohio State standout running back, was trying out after being released by the Arizona Cardinals in March. Wells said he had been told the Ravens merely needed to see him run, presumably to prove he had recovered from surgery on his right knee after the 2012 season.

"Next man in" was more than coachspeak for the Lafayette football team in 2013, especially at the most critical position: quarterback. The Leopards started the season with high hopes for junior Zach Zweizig, based on his play in the second half of 2012. But the year for the 6-5 former Wilson West Lawn star began with four interceptions and only one touchdown pass in the first two games. In the third game, he was sacked five times in one half before leaving with a concussion that ended his season.